dissertation_AlN.pdf - Wayne State University Digital Commons@Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations Design and fabrication of a

Wayne State University Digital [email protected] State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2012 Design and fabrication of a prototype aluminum nitride-based pressure sensor with finite element analysis and validation Xinyu Du Wayne State University , Follow this and additional works at: This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Digital [email protected] State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital [email protected] State University. For more information, please contact [email protected] . Recommended Citation Du, Xinyu, "Design and fabrication of a prototype aluminum nitride-based pressure sensor with finite element analysis and validation" (2012). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 408.

DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A PROTOTYPE ALUMINUM NITRIDE-BASED PRESSURE SENSOR WITH FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS AND VALIDATION by XINYU DU DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2012 MAJOR: ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING Approved by: Advisor Date Co-Advisor

ii DEDICATION I would like to dedicate my dissertation work to my parents, my wife and my sons whose love, moral support, motivation and encouragement has been helping me overcome all the difficulties that I encountered during this work.

iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I feel very much indebted to my advisors - Dr. Hao Ying and Dr. Gregory Auner for offering me such a wonderful opportunity to carry on my Ph. D. study and for their enlightenment and encouragement throughout my dissertation work. I would like to express my deep appreciation to my committee members, Dr. Mark Cheng, Dr. Robert Erlandson and Dr. Golam Newaz for their valuable advices, scientific investigation and being on my committee. I would also like to thank Smart Sensors and Integrated Microsystems (SSIM) members who have provided support during my study. It is their mentoring, training, discussion and collaboration that made my student days a fun and rewarding journey. Especially I am obliged to Dr. Guopeng Hu for measurement system setup, Dr. Yuriy Danylyuk for AlN film deposition, Dr. Qianghua Wang and Dr. Jianzeng Xu for PSMBE training, Mr. Bill Funk and Mr. Jason Zakens for clean room facilities training, Dr. Shih- Chia Chang, Dr. Changhe Huang, Dr. Michelle Brusatori and Dr. Joseph Smolinski for their valuable suggestions and help. I would like to express my appreciations to my current supervisor Dr. Yilu Zhang and other colleagues in GM R&D for their support and encouragement. Last but not least, I am especially grateful to my wife Yuxiu for all she did for me throughout these years.